Walter Raleigh

Whosoever, in writing a modern history, shall follow truth too near the heels, it may happily strike out his teeth.

— Walter Raleigh

Every fool knoweth that hatreds are the cinders of affection.

— Walter Raleigh

No man is wise or safe, but he that is honest.

— Walter Raleigh

If all the world and love were young,Is Fancy's spring, but Sorrow's fall.

— Walter Raleigh

Go, Soul, the body’s guest,Then give them both the lie.

— Walter Raleigh

So when thou hast, as I No stab the soul can kill.

— Walter Raleigh

Whosoever, in writing a modern history, shall follow truth too near the heels, it may happily strike out his teeth.

— Walter Raleigh

O eloquent, just, and mighty Death! whom none could advise, thou hast persuaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world hath flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and despised; thou hast drawn together all the far-stretched greatness, all the pride, cruelty, and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two narrow words, Hic jacet [Here lies]!

— Walter Raleigh

Our passions are most like to floods and streams;The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb.

— Walter Raleigh

Better were it to be unborn than ill-bred.

— Walter Raleigh

Remember...that if thou marry for beauty, thou bindest thyself all thy life for that which perchance will never last nor please thee one year; and when thou hast it, it will be to thee of no price at all, for the desire dieth when it is attained, and the affection perisheth when it is satisfied.

— Walter Raleigh

Bestow therefore thy youth so, that thou mayest have comfort to remember it when it hath forsaken thee, and not sigh and grieve at the account thereof.

— Walter Raleigh

Speaking much also is a sign of vanity; for he that is lavish in words is a niggard in deeds.

— Walter Raleigh

Be advised what thou dost discourse of, and what thou maintainest whether touching religion, state, or vanity; for if thou err in the first, thou shalt be accounted profane; if in the second, dangerous; if in the third, indiscreet and foolish.

— Walter Raleigh

No man is esteemed for gay garments but by fools and women.

— Walter Raleigh

There is nothing exempt from the peril of mutation.

— Walter Raleigh

All histories do shew, and wise politicians do hold it necessary that, for the well-governing of every Commonweal, it behoveth man to presuppose that all men are evil, and will declare themselves so to be when occasion is offered.

— Walter Raleigh

It is the nature of men, having escaped one extreme, which by force they were constrained long to endure, to run headlong into the other extreme, forgetting that virtue doth always consist in the mean.

— Walter Raleigh

All, or the greatest part of men that have aspired to riches or power, have attained thereunto either by force or fraud, and what they have by craft or cruelty gained, to cover the foulness of their fact, they call purchase, as a name more honest. Howsoever, he that for want of will or wit useth not those means, must rest in servitude and poverty.

— Walter Raleigh

He that doth not as other men do, but endeavoureth that which ought to be done, shall thereby rather incur peril than preservation; for whoso laboureth to be sincerely perfect and good shall necessarily perish, living among men that are generally evil.

— Walter Raleigh

Historians desiring to write the actions of men, ought to set down the simple truth, and not say anything for love or hatred; also to choose such an opportunity for writing as it may be lawful to think what they will, and write what they think, which is a rare happiness of the time.

— Walter Raleigh

Whoso taketh in hand to govern a multitude, either by way of liberty or principality, and cannot assure himself of those persons that are enemies to that enterprise, doth frame a state of short perseverance.

— Walter Raleigh

Whoso desireth to govern well and securely, it behoveth him to have a vigilant eye to the proceedings of great princes, and to consider seriously of their designs.

— Walter Raleigh

Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.

— Walter Raleigh